A mace (; Hong Kong English usage: tsin; Southeast Asian English usage: chee) is a traditional Chinese

measurement Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object or event, which can be used to compare with other objects or events. In other words, measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared ...

of weight in East Asia that was also used as a currency denomination. It is equal to 10 candareens and is of a tael or approximately 3.78 grams. A troy mace is approximately 3.7429 grams. In Hong Kong, one mace is 3.779936375 grams. and in Ordinance 22 of 1884, it is ounces

avoirdupois The avoirdupois system (; abbreviated avdp.) is a measurement system of weights that uses pounds and ounces as units. It was first commonly used in the 13th century AD and was updated in 1959. In 1959, by international agreement, the definiti ...

. In Singapore, one mace (referred to as chee) is 3.77994 grams. In imperial

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, 10 candareens equaled 1 mace which was of a tael and, like the other units, was used in weight-denominated silver currency system. A common denomination was 7 mace and 2 candareens, equal to one silver Chinese yuan.

Name

Like other similar measures such as tael and catty, the English word "mace" derives from

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, in this case through Dutch ''maes'', plural ''masen'', from Malay ''mas'' which, in turn, derived from Sanskrit ', a word related to "mash," another name for the urad bean, and

masha In Russian, Masha () is a diminutive of Maria. It has been used as a nickname or as a pet name for women named Maria or Marie. An alternative spelling in the Latin alphabet is "Macha". In Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, "Maša" is a diminutive of "Mar ...

, a traditional Indian unit of weight equal to 0.97 gram. This word is unrelated to other uses of mace in English. The Chinese word for mace is ''qian'' (), which is also a generic word for "money" in Mandarin Chinese. (The same Chinese character ( kanji) was used for the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese ''sen'', the former unit equal to of a

Japanese yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the ...

; the Korean ''chŏn'' ( revised: jeon), the former unit equal to of a Korean won; and for the Vietnamese tiền, a currency used in late

imperial Vietnam The Empire of Vietnam (; Literary Chinese and Contemporary Japanese: ; Modern Japanese: ja, ベトナム帝国, Betonamu Teikoku, label=none) was a short-lived puppet state of Imperial Japan governing the former French protectorates of Annam ...

; although neither of these has ever been known as "mace" in English.)

References

Currencies of China Currencies of Asia Modern obsolete currencies Chinese units in Hong Kong Units of mass {{standard-stub

Name

See also

References